Rusted Chrome by Karlos Allen	Table of Contents Day One, part 1   part 2   part 3   part 4 Day Two, part 1   part 2 Day Three, part 1   part 2   part 3   part 4 Day Four, part 1   part 2   part 3 Day Five Day Six Day Seven, part 1   part 2   part 3   part 4   part 5   part 6
Day Seven part 4 of 6

The van was around back and it took a minute for them to get out and onto the road. O’Leary was surprised to see Ernie punch in coordinates and settle back leaving the van in auto. “Is that safe?”

Ernie shrugged. “Why not? This is where I usually go for business, and if we are being watched, Alex isn’t going to stop us. It wants us to come out there.”

The drive was short and they soon pulled into a small loading dock. O’Leary recognized the place, it was behind a hallel butcher shop. Ernie got all his goat meat here. A couple of figures walked out of the shadows and climbed into the back seats of the van. Ernie turned the van around and drove them back onto the main road. “Where to, Detective?”

O’Leary thought for a minute. “Just put us on Highway 26 westbound. And then here” — he pointed at the display — “put us on manual and take us to this address.”

Ernie looked at him oddly as though he wanted to ask a question and then just shook his head and punched in the coordinates.

There was a long silence and then one of the people in the back asked, “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Ernie?”

“I’m sorry. This is Detective Charles O’Leary. Detective, this is Lu Zhan and this is Rita Johansson.”

O’Leary turned around. “Any relation to the ‘Rita’ that was the chief of the MI Project?”

The old woman nodded. “Yes, that’s me. What do you know about the Project?”

“Some. I had a long interview with Lisa and Zach. And I’ve been able to piece together quite a bit of information from older records. My AI, Margie, had gotten very good at finding deleted data.”

“I see.” She was quiet a moment. “How are they doing?”

“Who?’

“Lisa and Zach.”

“As well as can be expected. I get the impression that they stay home and just sort of hide from the world.”

“Well that’s better than we’d hoped for. I’m glad to hear they’re out of the hospital. The conditions in that place were almost criminal.”

“If you don’t mind, what are you doing here?”

“We think we can shut down Alex—”

“Not exactly,” Lu interrupted, “We think Ernie can shut down Alex. We’re just here to provide data and support.”

“What do you mean?”

Ernie spoke up. “There are certain... weaknesses in the AI codes. The right kinds of program can exploit those and can... ‘Shut down’ isn’t the right word. Basically we think we can render Alex catatonic. Once that is done, we might be able to find a way to eliminate it entirely.

“This is not going to be easy. There are a lot of firewalls and other defenses in the server farm that have been raised to protect the legitimate data and applications from the malware. We are going to have to get through them.”

“How important are those ‘legitimate’ applications?”

“Why?”

“My friend that we are going to pick up has a rather more direct method of shutting things down. However, he won’t be discriminating between Alex and legitimate software.”

“This is the bomber?”

“Yes?”

There was a long silence. O’Leary got the impression that he’d just said something very rude.

“Is there a problem with this?”

Ernie cleared his throat. “You wouldn’t understand. To us, and I’m speaking of AI’s here, destroying a server physically is like... blowing up the world. It’s an atrocity. To us, the server farms are the real world. The Net is reality and this” — he gestured out the window at the lit-up neighborhoods they were passing — “is virtual. Even to me, and I have lived as a human longer than as a program. I’m still not comfortable. I will say that I am looking forward to interfacing — even though it might destroy me. I feel like I’m going home after a long exile. The prospect of destroying home...”

Lu and Rita looked uncomfortable. “We promised we wouldn’t consider that method.”

“I see. What are the odds that you are going to be able to stop Alex without doing that?”

They managed to look more uncomfortable.

“I see.”

* * *

They drove on in silence till the van beeped asking for new coordinates. Ernie switched over to manual and drove to the Old Man’s house. He was waiting outside with an old duffel bag sitting at his feet. They opened the back of the van and he slid the bag in and then clambered into the back seat. O’Leary made the introductions and explained the chilly reception the Old Man got.

He shrugged. “I’m not dyin’ to use my equipment. I actually had something else in mind for it instead.”

“What would that be, Old Man?”

“Never you mind, Bud. What you don’t know, you can’t arrest me for.”

“OK, Detective, where to now?”

“Let’s head for the Fab. What’s the best way in anyway?”

There was a pause and then Lu spoke up. “I was in charge of Building Services after I left the Project. All of the entryways are gated and have RFID readers. There’s a wetlands that runs across the north side of the grounds, though, and a large culvert runs under the fence there.

“We tried to get some kind of security in that culvert, but nobody felt it was worth the expense. They kept pointing out that we were trying to prevent Intellectual Property theft and petty vandalism, not defend against commando raids. And since the culvert floods pretty regularly every winter we’d be spending a lot of money on security that we’d have to replace several times a year. Right now we should be able to just walk in under the fence there.”

“Then what?”

“Then nothing. There are some service doors that are card-locked. Normally that would stop us, but we aren’t even going in until after Alex is shut down, and by that time we’ll have enough access to the security systems that we can shut down any alarms or surveillance at will.”

The Old Man chuckled. “So you’re expecting a cake walk, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Well, good luck.” He settled back and closed his eyes.

“What’s that all about, Detective?”

“The Old Man’s a bit of a pessimist. He assumes that it’s gonna be harder than you think. He’s probably right. What’s your Plan B if things go bad?”

A long silence answered that question.

O’Leary was still trying to figure out a Plan B when they reached the back side of the property.

* * *

Ernie turned the van off the road and parked among some trees. Then Ernie and his friends reached into their bags and pulled out some caps. “I brought an extra one for you, Detective,” Ernie said, “but I don’t have one for your friend.” He didn’t look very apologetic.

“S’all right,” the Old Man replied. “Somebody has to keep watch, and I don’t use those things anyway.”

O’Leary winced a little as he put it on. He couldn’t help but remember that the last time he’d worn one, it had put him in the hospital. A few seconds later, they were all standing in front of a very ordinary looking door. So now what? Do we just walk up and knock?

Precisely. It took O’Leary a second to realize that the comment hadn’t come from him. He looked around and saw Rita grinning at him. You’re going to have to keep your mental comments to yourself, Detective. We’ll be able to hear whatever you’re thinking while we’re linked.

That’s not going to be easy. I always talk to myself. It gives me a chance to listen to somebody who’s bright enough not to disagree with me.

Ernie shook his head and walked forward to the door. Raising his hand he knocked . A few seconds later the door opened. The same man-shaped shape stepped out.

“Hello, Ernie, I see you have decided to join the humans.”

“I had to.”

“Well, you will not have to deal with them anymore. Come inside.”

Before any of them could move, Ernie was pulled in and the door was shut. A second later O’Leary found himself eyeball to eyeball with a CB.

Looking around he saw that he was back in the van. Lu and Rita were still in their seats and two other CB’s were standing over them holding their caps. He hoped they didn’t have the same halitosis his did. Looking around a little more he noticed that Ernie still had his cap on and was out like a light and that the Old Man was missing.

The Old Man didn’t reappear to save them as they were marched around the wetlands to the back door of the offices. Nor did he appear inside as they walked past long-abandoned cubicles, their feet kicking up clouds of dust from carpets that hadn’t been walked on, much less cleaned, in years. Everything was a dull gray, but O’Leary suspected that brand-new it wouldn’t have looked much different.

Finally they stopped at a conference room door. One of the CB’s opened it and they were pushed inside. Andrew and Christie were already there. Andrew looked tired but determined. Christie looked... blank.

“What’s wrong, Andrew?” O’Leary jerked his head toward her.

“I don’t know, she’s been like that almost since the minute they brought us here. If it wasn’t for the fact that she’s not wearing a cap, I’d say she was online.”

“She is wearing a cap. It’s under her wig.” He reached forward and saw stars as one of the CB’s slammed him down onto the table.

“You will not move. Alex is busy. We will wait till he is ready to monitor before we terminate you.”

“You realize you are taking orders from an AI, don’t you?”

The CB shrugged. “He’s in charge.”

“What’s this about termination, Detective?”

“Sorry, Andrew, apparently Alex wants to finish me off because I know too much. And when its grab for me didn’t work, it grabbed you and Christie and then called me to say that it was going to terminate you.”

“Unless?”

“Sorry, no unless. Alex is not human and doesn’t care what happens to you. It knew that telling me that would bring me out here. And it figured it would get me along with you.”

“Well, it seems he was right.”

“Not he, it. Not human, remember?”

“Whatever.” Andrew turned away.

Just then the door opened again and two more CB’s walked in carrying Ernie’s body between them. Obviously he was still online, but he didn’t seem to be doing well. His face looked strained and twitched every once in a while. His body was as stiff as a board, and the CB’s carrying him couldn’t get him into a chair. The other CB’s drifted over to help.

While they were busying themselves, O’Leary leaned over to Rita. “What was the plan?”

“You heard it.”

“Yeah, but can he pull it off without your help?”

“No.”

O’Leary reached into his pocket and eased out the taser Andrew had given him. Rita’s eyes widened briefly. He grinned and took aim. There was slight puffing noise as the CO2 cartridge fired the first dart. Even as the first CB was collapsing, O’Leary swung to cover the second. The last CB was turning to see where the shots were coming from as O’Leary’s dart took her in the side.

“They didn’t search you?” Andrew’s voice hovered between incredulity and professional outrage.

“Nope. Apparently Alex didn’t tell them to, and I imagine it doesn’t encourage original thinking in its employees. How much ammo do you have left?” He handed the taser back to Andrew who flipped it over and checked the magazine and charge.

“Looks like about five more here. I have a second clip in my pocket. That makes a total of 19 shots. Not much when you’re trying to get out of a place like this.”

“Well” — O’Leary pushed a chair up against the handle and braced it — “we won’t be leaving just yet. Will we?” He looked over at Rita.

She was holding one of the caps between her thumb and forefinger eyeing it with the same look reserved for things one has just fished out of the toilet.

“I don’t see any lice...”

Lu picked one of the other caps up. “Come on, Rita, we don’t have time to be squeamish.” He put the cap on, and a second later Rita followed suit.

O’Leary picked up the third and looked at Andrew. “Would you care to stay offline? Somebody needs to watch the door.”

“I planned to.”

“Thanks.” He put the cap on and found himself looking at the same door.

* * *

Proceed to part 5...

Copyright © 2010 by Karlos Allen